If you were to ask me how much training I do, I would tell you I do an hour of Wing Chun every morning before work, I do Chi Sau 2 lunchtimes a week for an hour each and go to 3 classes per week. However, this is only the plan. The reality is often different from the plan. For instance, I might have an impromptu mid week drinking binge that makes one of my early morning training sessions unviable (or so uncomfortable I just don’t bother). Similarly, my training partner might not be able to meet up for chi sau (and in reality, hasn’t been able to for 2 weeks now). I might also have to change my evening timetable around due to unforeseen circumstances, meaning that I can’t get to one of the mid week classes.
Because my real number of training hours may differ from my planned number, I thought I would keep a definitive record of how much training I really am doing. I was shocked at how few hours I estimated that I’d put in during my first 3 years of training (a pitiful 429). Hopefully I’ll have a more pleasant surprise at the end of this year.
In this post I will keep a record of how long I trained, what date I trained and what my training consisted of. In writing it down, there will be no hiding from the truth!
I have a dilemma, though. Do I include my warm up in my training time? Because I’m still stiff from getting out of bed so early in the morning, I walk on the treadmill for 5 minutes to wake my body up, then do a gentle 5 minute warm up and then a slightly more vigorous warm up. Should those 15 minutes be included in my total training time? They probably should, but for the purposes of this ‘study’ I’ll just include the Wing Chun specific training. For that reason, my morning training time will probably be less than one hour. I know I’m selling myself short but that’s just the kind of guy I am. Modest. Yet capable. Like Ip Man 
.
| Date | Duration | What |
|---|---|---|
| 12/01/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 14/01/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 26/01/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 26/01/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 27/01/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 28/01/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 28/01/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 29/01/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 30/01/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 31/01/2009 – 1/02/2009 | 10 hours | Wing Chun Instructors course |
| 2/02/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 2/02/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 3/02/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 4/02/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 4/02/2009 | 75 minutes | 15 minutes chi sau before a 1 hour class |
| 5/02/2009 | 55 minutes | Pre work training |
| 6/02/2009 | 55 minutes | 20 minutes on the 3 palm strikes at the start of Tsum Kiu, 15 minutes on Tsum Kiu itself, 20 minutes Siu Lim Tau |
I’m not ruling out using an excel spreadsheet for this, given that on a good week there will be 10 entries! A 520 row table might just fit on a web page…
Update: I give up with updating this table! I’m now using this wing chun training record in an excel spreadsheet instead. It’ll make totalling up the hours easier.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
haha. dude. why is your training schedule all the way up to june already… its not even april yet. lol. Maybe you train now for the future. lol.
I kid, man. Anyways, I wanted to ask you about your sil lum tao. You said in another post that it takes you a long time to do your siu lum tao. How long? and whats the reason for doing it for so long? My current training regimen involves me doing siu lum tao once and chum kiu once and then practicing techniques… Thats it. Listen you could email me so we can correspond over email. you have my email. or you could answer here. I don’t want to distract people.
cheers mate.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I think we may have a different date format over here in the UK (day/month/year). It catches me out sometimes!
We do SLT slowly mostly so that it improves your gong lik, trains the legs and calms the mind. We usually only do it for around 10 mins in class though, so it doesn’t get in the way of other stuff.
How you’re training sounds good to me. How long do you train for on an average week, if you don’t mind me asking? This is fascinating me at the moment. There was a guy on MartialTalk who said he did 2 hours in the morning and then 2 hours in the evening!